Abstract: Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) was a modern dance pioneer who combined spirituality and dance. Throughout her career, St. Denis’s
dances were greatly influenced by eastern culture and religion. In the later years of her career, Christian themes were also
explored and depicted in her works. Her papers include handwritten journals, personal and professional correspondence, essays,
poems, lectures, choreographic notes, musical scores, dance programs and ephemera, photographic prints, reel-to-reel audio
recordings, books from her personal library, and business materials. The collection spans the majority of her life, though
the bulk of collection derives from the 1920s to her death in 1968.

Property rights to the physical object belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are
retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Restrictions on Access

Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.

Boxes 1-3 available on microfilm in Library Special Collections. Originals not available for consultation due to fragile condition.
Microfilm must be used. Original audio reel-to-reels must be digitized prior to use.

Processed by Zoe Macleod in 2012-2014 in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Jillian
Cuellar. Additional processing assistance provided by Lindsay Chaney. Processing of this collection was funded by the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, and administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Cataloging Hidden Special
Collections and Archives program.

Biography

Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) was a modern dance pioneer who combined spirituality and dance. Throughout her career, St. Denis’s
dances were greatly influenced by eastern culture and religion. In the later years of her career, Christian themes were also
explored and depicted in her works. Born Ruth Dennis in New Jersey, she later added “St.” as part of her stage name. St. Denis’s
training began as a child, with the practice of physical exercises developed by François Delsarte. This greatly influenced
her future style of dance. As a teenager, she appeared in Broadway musicals and was a protégé of David Belasco. Inspired by
a poster advertising Egyptian Deities Cigarettes with an image of the Egyptian goddess Iris, St. Denis began choreographing
dances that expressed the goddess’s mysticism. The first dance piece that brought her into the circuit of higher art was Radha,
which she first performed in 1906. This dance portrayed the story of Krishna and his love for a mortal maid. St. Denis’s intention
was to create a work that would serve as a spiritual expression of eastern cultural themes.

In 1914, St. Denis married her dance partner, Ted Shawn. The following year, they founded the Denishawn School of Dance in
Los Angeles, California, one of the first schools devoted to “aesthetic dancing.” In 1920, the school moved to New York City.
Aesthetic dancing involved spiritual, natural movements. Some of Denishawn’s illustrious pupils were Martha Graham, Doris
Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Louise Brooks, the future film star. The Denishawn dancers toured Asia for fifteen months in
1925, performing dances inspired by Asian and Egyptian cultures.

In 1927, St. Denis founded the Society of Spiritual Arts, focusing on the religious aspects of dance. In 1931, St. Denis and
Shawn separated maritally, but did not legally divorce. Though they dissolved Denishawn, St. Denis remained close to Shawn
throughout her career. In 1934, St. Denis founded the Church of Divine Dance at her studio in Los Angeles, which, like the
Society of Spiritual Arts, established dance as a means of worship. Here, she led dance masses and rituals. In 1938, she founded
the first college dance program in an American university at Adelphi University in New York State.

St. Denis died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California in 1968. As a pivotal figure of modern dance, she left behind an
esteemed legacy and several dance companies have honored her by performing her pieces. She was inducted into the National
Museum of Dance’s Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987, and was among the first to be distinguished
by the Dance Heritage Coalition in its America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures http://www.danceheritage.org/treasures.html.

Scope and Content

This collection is comprised of the personal papers of Ruth St. Denis. It includes St. Denis’s handwritten journals, which
begin at the turn of the century and continue until weeks before her death, personal and professional correspondence, essays,
poems, lectures, choreographic notes, musical scores, dance programs and ephemera, photographic prints, reel-to-reel audio
recordings, books from her personal library, and business materials.. The collection spans the majority of her life, though
the bulk of collection derives from the 1920s to her death in 1968.